Railways, roads and the British white fish industry, 1920–70

Wilcox, Martin (2012) Railways, roads and the British white fish industry, 1920–70. Business History, 54 (5). pp. 741-764. ISSN 0007-6791 (Print), 1743-7938 (Online) (doi:10.1080/00076791.2011.631128)

Abstract

It is well known that the railways facilitated the development of the British fishing industry in the nineteenth century. Using sources only recently made available for research, this article explores the relationship between the fish trade and railways in the twentieth century. It concludes that the eventual withdrawal of British Railways from fish traffic was occasioned by the fact supply chains for many foodstuffs were revolutionised in the post-war period by the rise of large-scale processing industries and then multiple retailers, which mainly used road distribution. It was also, however, a product of the fish trades’ fragmentation and divisions, and of failures of negotiation on both sides.

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